Monthly Archives: March 2013

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South Pasadena 4, La Canada 2 — The Tigers bounced back from last Friday’s loss to San Marino by bringing La Canada back down to earth. Christian Miyamea had two RBIs and got the save by getting the final two outs after La Canada loaded the bases with one out in the ninth.

Temple City 7, San Marino 1 — The Rams opened league play by opening up an early lead on the Titans and never looking back. Gabe Juarez got the win for TC, which is now in first place in the RHL with a 1-0 record (hey, that’s all it takes). San Marino suffered its first loss of the season.

La Canada 2, Monrovia 1 — The Spartans got a walk-off single by Jacob Yonan in the seventh inning to hand Monrovia its first loss of the season and a loss in the Rio Hondo League opener for both teams. La Canada lefty Justin Lewis no-hit the Wildcats for 6 2/3 innings before leaving in favor Clayton Hermann, who struck out the last Monrovia hitter of the game to eventually earn the win.

San Marino 4, South Pas 0 — Jeff Bain goes the distance and helps himself at the plate with a two-run double.

San Gabriel Academy’s CIF State Southern California Regional championship game against Horizon Christian Academy will be played Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at Cathedral Catholic in San Diego.
San Gabriel Academy is a Seventh Day Adventist school and cannot play during the scheduled Saturday afternoon time frame the CIF had established because of religious reasons. The teams were scheduled to play Saturday at noon at Ontario’s Colony High School.
“We’re very grateful for the CIF to be willing to move the game during our Sabbath hours,” coach Kevin McCloskey said. “We’re willing to move the game to San Diego.”
Horizon is the Division V’s top seed. San Gabriel Academy is seeded 11th.

Tim Tucker has been named the new varsity boys basketball coach at Maranatha on the same day he resigned the same title at Pasadena after 19 successful seasons.

The move comes a day after Tim Godley resigned as coach at Maranatha after five seasons. Tucker told his Pasadena team yesterday, then made it official by signing the paperwork at Maranatha on Tuesday afternoon.

“From a Bulldog to a Minuteman,” Tucker said of the address change. “It was probably the toughest decision that I’ve ever made as a coach. What it came down to is that I needed a change because I needed to be rejuvenated. I needed to be excited again and I was starting to get not as excited going to Pasadena High School because I was doing the same with different players.

“And the other side of it is that the offer Maranatha made to me was just too good to pass up.”

Tucker, a 1978 graduate of Pasadena, won two CIF championships as a player. As a coach, he led the Bulldogs to 15 league championship, including nine consecutive, and two CIF championships. Tucker has been named the Star-News Coach of the Year five times.

Because of its success, Pasadena was moved into the CIF Southern Section super division 1-AA, where some of the Southland’s top heavyweight programs play. The Bulldogs did not enjoy their usual deep postseason run, losing to Loyola in the second round of the playoffs.

Tucker is hopeful his longtime assistant coach Tony Brooks will be promoted to head coach at Pasadena, thus making for a smooth transition. Pasadena athletic director Kevin Mills sounded like he was on the same page, but wouldn’t get into specifics.

“Stay tuned,” Mills said. “I have some thoughts, but I don’t want to put them out there just yet. I want to run it by the powers-that-be. But I have a thought that could make it a smooth transition.”

Tucker played for legendary former Bulldogs coach George Terzian and certainly carried on the legacy of success as a coach. His Pasadena teams not only dominated the local landscape, but they consistently proved capable of beating some of the Southland’s best programs, too.

“There was some shock, a lot of disappointment and a lot questions about where the program was headed,” Tucker said about the reaction of his players at Pasadena when given the news.

“The tradition will continue on.”

Shifting from a large public school like Pasadena to a small Christian private school in Maranatha won’t be easy, but Tucker is already laying out plans to turn his new program into something special.

“Tim (Godley) had done a good job here and built a good foundation to help me not have to start from scratch,” Tucker said. “They’re a winning program. I don’t feel like I have a long way to go here to get it done. I think that you’ll see some things happen in our program, starting this summer.

“We’re going to do some of the same things we did at Pasadena. We’re not going to play an easy schedule. We’re going to play the teams that Pasadena played. This is the direction they want to go. They want to compete and I welcome the opportunity to make that happen.”

Tucker lives in Altadena and is owner and CEO of Bourne Inc., which is a non-profit company that provides residential group homes for at-risk children.

Pasadena coach Tim Tucker has been in talks with Maranatha officials about becoming the school’s next boys basketball coach.

Tucker has built Pasadena into an area and Southland power. On Monday, Maranatha put out a press release saying that Tim Godley had resigned after five seasons.

It should be noted that last offseason there was talk of Tucker nearly taking the job at La Salle before deciding to stay put at PHS. One source said that Tucker was even offered the La Salle job, before he turned it down. Jelani Gardner was ultimately hired by the Lancers.

Aram’s take: I’m trying to figure out the pros and cons of this. Obviously, a coach has more leeway at a private school in terms of transfers, but it’s not like PHS was having any trouble getting transfers in anyway. Maranatha is likely able to offer Tucker a bump in pay, so that’s a plus. Maranatha’s playoff division is pretty difficult for what the Minutemen have got in terms of talent, but, Pasadena plays in the toughest division in SoCal.

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